As The CW’s top-rated drama hits a milestone, Somerhalder recalls, “I really wanted to rebel against the ‘Twilight’ era that was happening. But I realized Damon could be one of the coolest characters on television ever. I got to the network test and I bombed it.”

By the time 2008 rolled around, vampires were well established in the zeitgeist with a surging Twilight film series and the beginnings of HBO’s True Blood. The CW, a joint venture of CBS Corp. and Warner Bros., put its hat in the ring with The Vampire Diaries — and the risk paid off. Based on L. J. Smith‘s young-adult novels, the show centers on a parentless teenage girl who catches the eye of two vampire brothers while navigating adolescence, the supernatural and death. Lots of death. Any talk of Diaries just being TV’s Twilight clone subsided when it debuted Sept. 10, 2009, to 5.7 million viewers and became The CW’s highest-rated show among younger viewers, with an enviable median viewer age of 34.5. While season-five ratings average 3.8 million, its social media reach is far-ranging, with nearly 18 million Facebook fans and 420,000 Twitter followers (more than 17 million if you count the cast’s and producers’ followers). It ranks as the fourth-most-social broadcast series, behind American Idol, The Voice and The X Factor, according to Trendrr, and it’s seen in more than 180 countries. The key players of Diaries spoke candidly with THR about the success of the series.

For the next week leading up to the milestone episode airing on Thursday (Jan. 23), “500 Years of Solitude,” we’ll be sharing interviews with both current and gone-but-never-forgotten stars of “The Vampire Diaries” straight from the set in Atlanta from when they were filming the big 100th episode. First up: Kayla Ewell, a.k.a. Vicki Donovan.

Can you believe it, Vampire Diaries fans?! After five seasons worth of shocking deaths, hot hookups and mind-blowing twists, the little CW show that could is hitting its milestone 100th episode.

To celebrate, we’re bringing you a week-long countdown filled with interviews with the series’ stars straight from the Atlanta set. That’s right, E! News happened to be on set for The Vampire Diaries‘ 100th episode, “500 Years of Solitude,” to get scoop from the cast, as well as find out their favorite moments and episodes.

And what better way to kick this vampire party off than with two of our favorite supernatural ladies Candice Accola and Kat Graham?!

“I’m still in shock,” Graham admitted of hitting 100 episodes. “It feels like just yesterday we were shooting the pilot in Vancouver and we all moved out here with Hacky Sacks [laughs] and newbie actors, first time for a lot of us on a series. It just still feels so fresh yet so familiar now.”

Accola also looked fondly on the pilot filming experience, and actually picked the episode as her favorite of the series.

“It was huge. It was such a huge moment for me, personally, to get a job [laughs] and hope that the job would grow to what it’s become now. Also, everyone was just so excited. No one came into the environment jaded,” she explained. “Everyone was so excited working on this project. The one thing I kept hearing over and over is, ‘It’s not usually like this,’ so to know that in all the years that I will continue to work as an actress that that was a moment that was really special.”

As for Graham, she chose the third season’s fifth episode, “The Reckoning,” as her personal favorite.

“It was amazingly written,” she said of the Michael Narducci-penned (he now is the showrunner of the spinoff series, The Originals) hour, before explaining how the episode challenged her personally and professionally.

“I actually enjoy swimming, but it was an episode where I had to dive to the bottom of this pool and save Matt, who was chained to the bottom. He was literally chained with weights and we shot it for hours,” she spilled. “I was forced to do things that made me really uncomfortable and I think that personally I great from that episode.”

And fans of the series have come to learn that no one is safe in Mystic Falls, as we’ve lost countless beloved characters throughout its five-year run. In fact, both Accola and Graham have died, with Accola’s character Caroline becoming a vampire, and Graham returning a ghost at the end of season four, before coming back to life earlier this season.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it past the pilot!” Graham said. “I think that no one can ever feel completely comfortable. If a storyline goes a certain direction, you just have to trust that that is the way they have chosen to write it and this is the job you have chosen to accept. It forces you to constantly have to put your best foot forward because it might be your last step.”

And the 100th episode might be the last step for Katherine Pierce, one of Nina Dobrev‘s characters, with Accola previewing of the episode, “We obviously we all know Katherine is not doing very well and it’s showing in a very big way, so everyone’s been expressing what Katherine has meant to their life, whether that’s good, which nota lot of it’s really good; it’s basically all bad. They’re bonding over hating Katherine and waiting to see what her fate will be.”

The Vampire Diaries returns Thursday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. on the CW with its landmark 100th episode.

Warning: contains also major spoilers for 5.10 Fifty Shades Of Grayson!

We have to wait an agonizing six weeks until the next all new episode of The Vampire Diaries — but it sounds like it will be more than worth the wait as January 23 will bring us the 100th episode. That’s right, Season 5, Episode 11 (“500 Years of Solitude”) will bring us the big 1-0-0, and all signs point to it being epic. What did TVD showrunner Julie Plec just tease about it?

The Vampire Diaries mid-season finale is upon us! And yes, we’re a little sad that this is our last episode of TVD until January.

When last we saw Elena Gilbert, she was strapped to a table in Dr. Maxfield’s lab where she met Damon’s old friend Enzo. Katherine and Stefan were heating things up in front of the Salvatore fireplace.

How will all of that play out?

TV Fanatic had the chance to chat with Executive Producer and writer Caroline Dries about what we can expect from The Vampire Diaries Season 5 Episode 10. Scroll down for excerpts from our exclusive Q&A…

Caroline Dries talks to THR about Damon and Elena’s shaky future, the repercussions for Katherine and Stefan’s hookup and the pros of breaking up the season into “chapters.”

[Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.]

Elena is in trouble on The Vampire Diaries.

Things between Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) are rockier than ever following Elena’s discovery that Damon had been secretly killing off Whitmore family members as part of his sketchy Augustine past, as recently as several months prior when they were happily together. The Dec. 12 fall finale, “Fifty Shades of Grayson” (more on the meaning behind the title later), kicks off with Elena trapped on Dr. Wes Maxfield’s (Rick Cosnett) medical slab and learning that Damon’s former friend Enzo (Michael Malarkey), whom he betrayed, is actually alive and kicking.

In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter previewing the fall finale, executive producer Caroline Dries discusses Elena’s sticky situation, Damon and Elena’s shaky future and pairing up Katherine and Stefan.